Baby Pictures: How Avengers: Endgame Should Have Ended
by KeiaraCatalyst
Summary: The Avengers paid a terrible price for their victory. But if Bruce's theory is correct, the cost doesn't have to be as high as everyone thought.


It wasn't like Bruce to miss a funeral. Not if he could help it.

Especially not if the dearly departed were two of his closest friends.

And yet, as Tony's memorial bobbed down the river, and Clint and Steve stepped forth with bouquets in memory of Natasha, the hulking scientist who'd loved them both was nowhere to be seen.

No one knew where he was. Most were too preoccupied to ask.

But Hope van Dyne was starting to suspect. She saw the look in her father's eyes, and she alone knew his face well enough to detect the faint smile that was fighting to pierce his somber facade.

He knew something. Yesterday, when he vanished into his laboratory for several hours, he'd been _doing_ something.

But when she caught his eye, the shake of his head was as eloquent as it was subtle. _Not yet, Hope. You'll find out soon._

-O-O-O-

Mournful music played softly in the background, channeled through wireless speakers connected to the laptop Tony had given Morgan for her fifth birthday.

Pepper had had to enable the device's wireless network access; they'd deliberately disconnected it for the sake of its vulnerable user, and she'd have to do so again afterward. But Morgan had insisted that Daddy's last present to her be part of his funeral, and Pepper wasn't about to deny her.

The child's lip was trembling now, her big eyes wet with a grief she was far too young to bear. Behind her, Happy's hoarse voice whispered in a tone he probably thought she couldn't hear, "It should've been me. I was his bodyguard; it should've been me."

It couldn't have been; the magic-wielding doctor who'd approached her and Tony on that fateful day five years ago had told her so after her husband's death. He'd scoured every possibility, and only this one led to victory.

She'd wanted to scream at him, to tell him there HAD to be another way. But this was the man who'd bought them these precious last five years, who'd given away the Time Stone to save Tony's life, because he knew that the man she loved was the key.

She had no right to be angry at him for not giving them more.

Though a burning, vice-tight throat, she'd told him not to blame himself. His answering "I know I shouldn't" rang almost sincere, but his eyes had been heavy with the unspoken words: "but part of me still does."

The music hit its mournful climax, ripping the breath from her aching chest, and for the sake of the child in her arms, she struggled to hold back a sob. _Keep it together, Pepper,_ she silently demanded. _Be strong for the daughter he left behind._

"ALL YOU WOMEN WHO WANT A MAN OF THE STREET!"

The sudden scream sent a jolt thundering through her body, and she and Happy instinctively leaned forward, closing protectively around Morgan as the startling music kept howling:

"BUT YOU DON'T KNOW WHICH WAY YOU WANT TO TURN

"JUST KEEP A COMING AND PUT YOUR HAND OUT TO ME

"'CAUSE I'M THE ONE WHO'S GONNA MAKE YOU BURN!"

The hissing roar of thrusters yanked her attention to the sky, and as two shapes plunged from the sky, Pepper's eyes and mouth went wide.

_This can't be._

They struck the ground in unison: a huge green man with a platinum-blonde woman in his arms, and a red-and-gold mechanical shell that was too familiar to be real.

For a moment, Pepper's world froze, hope and denial colliding with a force that brought everything else to a halt.

Then the armor shrank away, nanites returning to their case and revealing the man underneath.

Dark hair. Brown eyes, blinking owlishly in the light. A smile that was slightly disoriented, but happy and wide.

And below that, a quantum suit that matched the ones worn by the Hulk and-

"NATASHA?!"

It was only when Clint's shout rang across the gathering that Pepper realized the music had been cut. The archer lunged toward the newcomers, stumbling to a halt as he stared at the woman who was disembarking Bruce's arms.

"And… Tony?!"

"Yup, I'm here too. Thanks for noticing. So, this is what the future looks like!"

_The future?_ For a moment, Pepper could only stare, her grief-clouded mind struggling to understand how this could be real.

And then it clicked.

The quantum suits. Bruce's absence. The way Tony's eyes had skimmed across Morgan like he didn't even recognize her.

_Bruce told me he couldn't change the past. As long as the Infinity Stones exist, they keep the timeline in one coherent flow, so what's happened always will have happened._

_That's why Gamora was able to come to the future without changing the past, even though she was sacrificed to the Soul Stone. Her, and Natasha, and Thanos, and…_

"Tony?"

She'd meant for her voice to sound stronger. It wasn't supposed to break, or to be drowned out by Morgan's scream of "DADDY!"

But he was _here_, and smiling, and alive, and the way his eyes softened when he saw her was so damn familiar…

"Pepper." His voice was quiet, and the nervous apology in his face did not belong there. "Baby, I'm sorry – I told you no more surprises, and then-"

"You idiot." Her voice came out halfway between a laugh and a sob, and her feet finally dislodged from the ground to which they'd been frozen. Even as the child in her arms began to squirm, Pepper rushed into her husband's waiting embrace, pressing herself and her daughter against his chest. "This is the best surprise I've ever had."

"Well, I do aim to please. Though granted, I frequently miss."

A few feet away, a small "Oof!" sounded as Clint scooped Natasha into a crushing hug, and Morgan grinned as she wrestled her arms out from between her parents so she could hug her father properly.

"I'm glad you're back, Daddy."

"I'm glad to be back," he answered warmly. "Not that I remember being gone, time shenanigans being what they are. And you must be Morgan."

"Must be?" Confusion swept across the child's face, and Pepper's stomach sank. "What do you mean? Don't you remember me?"

"Uh…" The answering voice belonged to Bruce, who drew Morgan's attention by gently settling his ponderous hand on her tiny shoulder. "I'm sorry, kid; I had to get a version of him from before the Infinity Stones were destroyed. If I took him after that, the Stones wouldn't have been there to keep the timeline constant, and I could've caused a nasty alternate reality."

"Yeah, I'm not the most recent model," Tony piped up apologetically. "I'm a bit obsolete, and missing a few features – like my memories of the last five years – so I might need a bit of time to get updated."

"We've got my baby photos," Morgan offered. "And my videos, like the one you took on my fourth birthday, when I threw handfuls of cake and you blew them up with your suit."

"Wow." A small laugh burst from Tony, and his eyes danced. "You really must be my daughter. I can't _wait _to get to know you again."

A grin lit the child's face, and Tony pressed his family tighter against him. "I am so sorry I left you like that," he murmured into Pepper's hair. "I can't imagine what you must've been though, losing a guy like me…"

Part of her wanted to respond with a snippy, teasing remark, but that part was drowning in tears. "It was hell," she managed, a pained smile fighting for position with a cringe at the awful memories.

No wife should see her husband's body empty and burned.

No mother should have to tell her five-year-old that the father she "loves three thousand" is never coming home.

"I'm so sorry, honey." His lips were soft against her hair, and his breath was warm and real. Alive. "I will do my very best to never leave you again. At least not until we're a hundred, and wrinkly as the Grand Canyon."

"At LEAST not until then." At last, a laugh began to break through the lingering echo of pain. "That should've been in our wedding vows."

"Our wedding… wow. Yet another thing I managed to miss. We should have another one. I hope it's OK that I invited Wong."

"He was there," Pepper pointed out, glancing at the sorcerer, who responded with a respectful nod. "Dr. Strange wasn't, though. And neither was Peter."

From the shadow that passed through Tony's eyes, she suspected Bruce had told him why. "Well, that is a crying shame," he replied softly. "A wedding without my first choice of ring bearer. Hey, Morgan, do you wanna be the flower girl?"

"Yes!"

"You know," a new voice slid into the conversation, and they turned to see Natasha sidling up to them. "Everyone's here in their Sunday best – think we should make the most of it?"

Tony's eyes jumped back to Pepper, an eager echo of Natasha's question flashing in his eyes, and the tears were finally pushed aside by a full, genuine smile. "We absolutely should."

"All right, then! Friday, amp up the speaker on this thing. HEY, EVERYONE!" Tony's arm rose along with his voice, and the guests all stood a little taller.

"I'd like to announce that the funeral is OVER! Of course, it was already over for me about five minutes ago. The AFTER-funeral – also known as OUR WEDDING – begins in fifteen minutes!"

Fifteen minutes. This was all happening so fast. One minute she was mourning him, now the crowd was cheering for him and Natasha, and fifteen minutes from now she was going to marry him again.

"One hour!"

All eyes turned toward Rhodey, whose face was a contrast of smiles and tears. "If you give me one hour to run to the store, I'll get you two a cake."

The wife and groom-to-be exchanged a glance, and now it was Pepper's turn to shout. "The wedding begins in one hour!"

"And in the meantime… hey, Peter!"

The boy had been hovering at the edge of the group, obviously dying to hug his mentor, but too polite to intrude on the family reunion. Now Tony beckoned him closer, and Bruce stepped back to make room as Spider-man rushed forward like a puppy who hadn't seen his owner for two whole hours.

"Mr. Stark, I can't believe you're alive – I mean, this is so, SO awesome – we both saw each other die – I mean, you probably don't remember seeing me die, and that's not the part that's awesome, but you were dead, and now you're _not_-"

And there were still dark spots on the boy's outfit where tears had yet to dry. Pepper saw them, and she knew Tony had noticed them, too. "C'mere."

The resurrected hero spread his arms, and Peter's eyes went wide. "Me?"

"No, the building behind you." As Peter craned his neck to look, Tony's eyes rolled fondly. "_Yes,_ you. Oof!"

Now it was Tony's turn to get squashed as spider-enhanced arms closed around him, mashing him into the desperate hug of a child who had almost lost his third father figure in a row. "I thought we were only ever gonna get to do this twice," the boy choked, and one of Tony's hands left his back to gently ruin the boy's formal hairdo.

"I do have a way of waiting until it's almost too late, don't I?"

"No, no, I didn't mean that-"

"I know you didn't. But it's true." With a deep, shaky breath, Tony drew away, the glisten in his eyes whispering that his family's grief and relief were starting to spread to him. "I almost lost you, didn't I?" His gaze strayed to Pepper and Morgan. "All three of you."

"We almost lost _you_," Pepper responded, smiling through the tears that threatened to return.

"Well, I'd promise that won't happen again, but you know how I am with promises. For now, I think it's time to focus on what we can get back. We've got an hour before the wedding, and I'd like to spend it watching baby videos and getting reacquainted with my family."

Peter took a step back, and Tony's gaze followed him. "My WHOLE family."

Fresh tears rose in the boy's eyes, and his mentor smiled. "Wat'cha think, kid? Wanna come over and get to know your kinda-unofficially-adopted little sister-"

"BUT I WANTED TO BE THE _BIG_ SISTER WHEN YOU HAD ANOTHER KID!"

"Wanna come get to know your kinda-unofficially-adopted _big_ sister before I co-opt you as my ring bearer?"

A grin broke across Peter's face like sunlight as he nodded, and Pepper felt herself echoing the expression alongside Tony and Morgan.

It was all so surreal, she wasn't sure when her still-reeling mind would be able to fully accept it. Her hand settled on her husband's shoulder, rubbing the plate of his quantum suit in a quest to convince herself that he was too solid to be an illusion, that the way he turned and smiled at her was as real as the fingers that rose to cover hers.

Her eyes strayed to Bruce, whose grin lit his face like the star on a big green Christmas tree, and she gently let Morgan out of her arms before stepping toward the giant. "Bruce," she said quietly, her voice choked, "I can never thank you enough."

"Hey, I owed it to him. And you. We all did."

But still. Her hand closed around his arm, and she suddenly yanked him downward, brushing a grateful kiss on his startled cheek. Morgan gave a soft moan of "Ew!", and Tony grinned mischievously at her before stepping toward his friend.

"I'm getting in on this."

"Come on, Tony-"

Too late – Tony had already planted one on his other cheek, and Peter was silently backpedaling, clearly hoping to create enough distance that it wouldn't seem impolite for him not to join in.

Pepper was tempted to corral him into it anyway, but they had less than an hour before the wedding, and time was running out.

Besides, Wanda was stepping forward, and Pepper's heart twisted as she thought of the hard conversation Bruce was about to have.

Vision had depended on the Infinity Stone in his head. The stone couldn't be removed from its place in the timeline, and neither could he.

Pepper had gotten her partner back, but Wanda – and far too many others – would not be so lucky.

Beside her, Tony was visibly withering, and she reached over to squeeze his hand. This time, when he turned toward her, his smile was small and pained. "We lost Vision, didn't we?" he whispered.

Her eyes were burning again, and she forced herself to nod. Vision was Tony's child, just as all his robots were, and he'd been the last remnant of Jarvis.

And now he was gone.

So many people and memories were gone.

But so many had come back, and she was determined to make the most of it, for whatever time they had left. "Come on," she said softly. "Let's go see some baby pictures."


End file.
